Dr. Anthony Fauci, the country's leading infectious disease expert, has highlighted the range of symptoms among young coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients in an interview with Facebook CEO and Founder Mark Zuckerberg on Friday.

Anthony Fauci
Reutersconnect

Fauci said most of the young people, who tested positive for the coronavirus, won't become seriously ill, but may suffer from "post-infection syndromes" that resemble to chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS). However, he noted that it may take a while, maybe for months or years, to determine if these young people will suffer from chronic illnesses.

The CFS is a disease often characterized by cognitive impairment, muscle pain, and a debilitating lack of energy.

According to Fauci, a growing number of young patients were hospitalized due to COVID-19 and they were reported being sick for weeks.

In an interview with Zuckerberg, Fauci said "it's the people who really get knocked out badly, particularly those who require hospitalization, that it's going to take months to a year or more to determine if there are any long-lasting, deleterious consequences of the infection."

He explained that no one knows right now because there are more things that are yet to be discovered about the coronavirus. It can be recounted that virus mutation is one of the reasons why scientists have difficulties in developing a vaccine.

Fauci issued the statement following a drastic rise in coronavirus infections among young adults in the country. In COVID-19 hotspots like Arizona and Texas, half of their coronavirus cases are in their 20s to 40s.

In Florida and California, more than a third of their COVID-19 cases are aged between 18 and 34 years, according to data from the California Department of Health released on Wednesday.

Fauci said the number of infected persons in the past few days showed that the new cases are coming from the median age and are about a decade and a half younger than it was a few months ago, which is very alarming because people who belong in this group are not susceptible, unless they have pre-existing medical conditions.

Fauci emphasized that this could have dangerous effects on virus transmission. He appealed to young men and women to be responsible because by allowing themselves not to get infected is a way not to spread the virus. Doctors have already started to identify a wider range of symptoms among young COVID-19 patients, who are between 20 and 40.

The number of coronavirus cases in the United States continues to rise. In fact, the country has reported a record-high of 77,000 new cases on Thursday, the highest so far in the country.

People ages 18 to 29 make up more than four times as many COVID-19 hospitalizations as they did a few months ago. As of July 4, about 38 hospitalizations were reported for every 100,000 people compared to nine hospitalizations out of 100,000 people last April 18.

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